After Patty's death, Deke certifies the four remaining female astronaut candidates — Molly, Danielle, Tracy, and Ellen — against Nixon's wishes. Molly is assigned to Apollo 15 in Gordo's place, further straining his marriage with Tracy. Molly and Ed butt heads during training.
This episode provides examples of:
- Alternate History:
- Ed and Molly take the place of James Irwin and David Scott, the crew of the Apollo 15 LEM in our timeline.
- Armor-Piercing Response: When Margo accuses Molly of not being good enough for Apollo 15, and certainly not enough to be the first female astronaut, Molly complains that she's Not in This for Your Revolution and is "just a pilot". Margo shuts her down with four words: "No. You're an astronaut."
- Awful Wedded Life: Tracy and Gordo were already struggling, but Tracy becoming an astronaut and Gordo getting cut from Apollo 15 pushes things even further south.
- The Beard: Ellen and Larry are revealed to be gay, and that they are pretending to be a couple to deflect suspicion.
- Bedmate Reveal: Subverted and played straight. Larry is awoken by a phone call asking for Ellen, to which he sheepishly says she's in bed with him. After the caller hangs up, he climbs over his empty bed to reach a phonebook. The scene then cuts to Ellen and Pam in bed at Pam's apartment.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Molly thinks that Ed is patronizing her because she's a woman. Ed thinks Molly is too abrasive to take constructive advice. Neither of them are wrong.
- Butch Lesbian: Ed wonders if Molly is this after their rough first meeting. Turns out she's heterosexual and Happily Married.
- Call-Back: During a phone call with Gordo, Tracy flushes the toilet to remind him that she knows of his past infidelity.
- Irony: In the previous episode, Molly resented Tracy for being kept on as an astronaut candidate for PR reasons. In this episode, Molly is inserted into Apollo 15 as a political stunt, and has to scramble to get herself ready for the mission in time.
- Jerkass: President Nixon phones Deke during the Apollo 15 launch just to remind him that if Molly screws up the mission, he (Deke) will be the one to answer for it.
- Mistaken for Gay: The implication was certainly there the episode before, but Ed is the first to actually voice the suspicion that Molly is gay. Turns out, she is Happily Married - to a man.
- Not in This for Your Revolution: Molly initially has no interest in becoming a feminine icon, though she starts to change her tune when she sees the cheering crowd ahead of the launch.
- Refuge in Audacity: The Higher-Ups are about to cancel the female astronaut program. Deke Slayton, who is very insistent that he is not one to be pushed around by changing political winds, instead calls a live press conference where the four remaining female ASCANs are announced to the entire world as the next female astronauts. Not even Nixon and Kissinger combined could undo that.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Ed and Molly do not necessarily get along. But they have to or the mission will fail.
- The Unsmile: NASA's PR department repeatedly try to get Molly to smile for the camera. The results are... mixed.
